12 Best Stocks Under $50

Published July 29, 2022 at 9:09 am EDT Updated September 7, 2026 at 11:34 am EDT

In this piece we will take a look at the 12 best stocks under $50.

If there’s one thing that most people would have been unable to predict as 2022 started, it’s that major stock market indexes would enter bear territory and see their value drop by more than 30% by the second half of the year. Battered by the coronavirus pandemic, investors and economists were looking forward to a year of recovery, but the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine upended the delicate balance of recovery and fueled inflation by hammering global commodities.

In such a scenario especially for the retail investor, investing in the stock market appears to be a tricky proposition. After all, the NASDAQ 100 composite index has dropped by a whopping 25% year to date, the DOW Jones Industrial Average by roughly 13%, the S&P by 17%, and the NYSE by close to 14%.

Ken Fisher’s Take on the Latest Market Situation

However, as the old adage goes, ‘buy the dip and sell the peak’, the time might just be right to consider the stock market. This is bolstered by a recent interview given by billionaire Ken Fisher, who continued his trend of engaging with listeners on YouTube earlier this month and shared his take on stock markets. Mr. Fisher outlined that investments can be broken down into two categories, namely ‘growth’ and ‘value’ investments, and each has its benefits and drawbacks that surface in correlation to current market trends.

He outlined that when markets are dropping, investors tend to flock towards value stocks such as energy companies and banks, since they tend to hold their ground in a bearish environment. However, judging when to switch gears, and change strategies from focusing on value to growth, or vice versa, are key for long term success believes Mr. Fisher — particularly when markets have dropped for months and might be bottoming out. At this crucial juncture, investing in growth stocks, such as those of technology companies, can very well poise an investor for massive returns in the long term.

According to Ken Fisher:

“So if you’re heavy in value now, you’ve been doing relatively well compared to the market, you’re down but not down as much. You might want to switch out of that as you get to where we would have a bottom and move to growth because coming up the other side that would tend to be true. Now it is normally true that coming off the bottom of bear markets, the categories that have done the worst going down tend to do the best in the initial months and sometimes longer.”

Keeping this in mind, we’ve taken a look at both value and growth stocks, for a mix of options that can suit both kinds of market environments. The top three stocks in our list are Canadian Natural Resources Limited (NYSE:CNQ), Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC), and Corning Incorporated (NYSE:GLW).

Photo by Kaleidico on Unsplash

Our Methodology

In order to sift out some impressive cheap stocks out there, we scanned broader industry trends to select the companies. After this, the firms were analyzed through their investor sentiment, analyst coverage, earnings where applicable, and hedge fund sentiment courtesy of Insider Monkey’s Q1 2022 912 hedge fund survey.

Best Stocks Under $50

12. Agora, Inc. (NASDAQ:API)

Share Price as of July 21, 2022: $5.3

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 17

Agora, Inc. (NASDAQ:API) is a software technology company based in Shanghai, People’s Republic of China. It offers a large set of software solutions that let developers embed and include video chatting and conferencing capabilities into their platforms alongside other features such as chat and video calling.

Agora, Inc. saw its fortunes tumble on the stock market as its major industry, which offered private tuition to children in China was banned by the government. This led to the company facing heavy losses however, at the same time, vying to benefit from a growth in online learning in China as it continues to deal with COVID 19 lockdowns.

Additionally, its development software has a strong position in North American and Western countries, with revenue from these markets growing by more than 50% annually in its latest quarter. Agora, Inc. also has a $200 million share buyback program in place, which will attract higher share prices. 17 of the 912 hedge funds polled by Insider Monkey for Q1 2022 had invested in the company.

Agora, Inc.’s largest investor is Dawid Krige’s Cederberg Capital which holds 2 million shares that are worth $21 million.

Agora, Inc. joins Wells Fargo & Company, Canadian Natural Resources Limited, and Corning Incorporated in some of the hot stocks under $50 out there.

11. Xperi Holding Corporation (NASDAQ:XPER)

Share Price as of July 21, 2022: $16

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 23

Xperi Holding Corporation (NASDAQ:XPER) is another technology company that is known for licensing entertainment product solutions. These include content delivery over several kinds of networks such as satellite and broadband, and content discovery and automotive media solutions.

Xperi Holding Corporation is one of the largest companies in the world when it comes to its licensing portfolio, which has seen it extend its presence to billions of technology products worldwide. It owns more than 10,000 patents and has made a string of acquisitions to further diversify its business alongside increasing its revenue guidance by $10 million in June 2022. 23 of the 912 hedge funds polled by Insider Monkey as this year’s March quarter ended had bought the company’s shares.

BWS Financial kept a $26 price target for the company in July 2022, as it outlined that a recent acquisition will further accelerate development.

10. Ping Identity Holding Corp. (NYSE:PING)

Share Price as of July 21, 2022: $19.6

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 20

Ping Identity Holding Corp. (NYSE:PING) is an American identity verification and other services provider that is headquartered in Denver, Colorado. These services include features such as single sign on and multi factor authentication and the company counts several Fortune 100 companies as its customers.

Ping Identity Holding Corp.’s latest financial quarter saw it grow its annual recurring revenue (ARR) by 21.5% annually, which in itself marked the fifth consecutive quarterly growth for the ARR percentage. With a total addressable market (TAM) for identity solutions estimated to be at $13.4 billion, Ping Identity Holding Corp. has plenty of room to grow in its segment.

While Mizuho reduced the company’s share price target to $25 from $29 in July 2022 on the back of current political uncertainty, it nevertheless maintained that Ping Identity Holding Corp. offers a competitive mix of risk and reward. Insider Monkey scanned 912 hedge fund portfolios in Q1 2022 to discover that 20 had bought the company’s shares.

Robert Smith’s Vista Equity Partners is Ping Identity Holding Corp.’s largest investor through a $228 million stake that comes courtesy of 8.3 million shares.

In its Q1 2022 investor letter, Baron Funds mentioned Ping Identity Holding Corp. and outlined:

“Ping Identity Corporation offers identity and access management security software. Shares appreciated due to strong fourth quarter financial results and upbeat guidance for 2022. Annual recurring revenue growth accelerated for a third straight quarter driven by strong adoption of Ping’s SaaS software products and cross selling new customer identity-focused products to existing customers. Management guided to further acceleration next year driven by healthy demand for the SaaS platform and for newer products such as online fraud detection, identity security orchestration, and Ping’s federal government solutions. Longer term, we maintain conviction in Ping due to growing demand for identity-oriented cybersecurity, Ping’s continued market share gains from legacy on-premise tools, and management’s focus on expanding distribution through new channel partners. Ping also trades at a reasonable valuation relative to other leading cybersecurity peers.”

9. Sonos, Inc. (NASDAQ:SONO)

Share Price as of July 21, 2022: $21.8

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 30

Sonos, Inc. (NASDAQ:SONO) is an audio product designer and manufacturer based in Santa Barbara, California. The company offers products such as wireless and theater speakers. It has thousands of retail partners in the U.S. and a strong brand image.

Despite the supply chain uncertainty that has plagued nearly every consumer electronics firm out there, Sonos, Inc. managed to grow its revenues during its latest fiscal quarter and beat analyst estimates by a wide margin. To further boost its case, the company estimates that the global audio market is worth $89 billion, leaving it with plenty of room for growth.

Insider Monkey’s 912 hedge fund analysis for the first quarter of this year revealed that 30 had bought the company’s shares.

Sonos, Inc.’s largest investor in our database is Christopher Shackelton and Adam Gray’s Coliseum Capital which owns 3.9 million shares that are worth $112 million.

Sonos, Inc. made an appearance in Aristotle Capital Management‘s investor letter for this year’s first quarter, with the fund stating that:

“Sonos (NASDAQ:SONO), a consumer electronics company with proprietary multi-room smart speaker technology, was added to the portfolio on the belief that strong consumer demand for the company’s differentiated product offering plus a multi-year pipeline of upcoming new product introductions are expected to drive shareholder value for the next several years.”

8. Marathon Oil Corporation (NYSE:MRO)

Share Price as of July 21, 2022: $22

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 43

Marathon Oil Corporation (NYSE:MRO) is crude oil, natural gas, liquefied natural gas, and other energy products explorer, developer, marketer, and seller. The firm has facilities all over the United States and it is headquartered in Houston, Texas.

One of the strongest points of Marathon Oil Corporation is the fact that the company plans to return more than 50% of its cash flows through share repurchase programs to investors. Its current share repurchase authorization program is worth $2.5 billion and like other companies, Marathon Oil Corporation is also slated to benefit from high oil prices. To further sweeten the deal, Marathon Oil Corporation also has a 1.14% dividend yield and $0.08 dividend per share quarterly dividend.

However, Wall Street remains cautious about oil prices, as it believes that due to the risks of a recession, oil prices will dip in the future. Subsequently, Piper Sandler lowered Marathon Oil Corporation’s share price target to $38 from $39 in July 2022 but kept an Overweight rating on the shares. By the end of this year’s March quarter, 43 of the 912 hedge funds profiled by Insider Monkey had invested in the company.

Ken Fisher’s Fisher Asset Management is Marathon Oil Corporation’s largest shareholder. It owns 8.6 million shares that are worth $217 million.

Carillon Tower Advisers mentioned Marathon Oil Corporation in its Q1 2022 investor letter to outline that:

“Stock selection contributed the most while sector allocation was also positive. An underweight to communication services and an overweight to energy helped performance, while an underweight to consumer staples and an overweight to materials detracted. Stock selection was strong within healthcare and materials but was weak within information technology and industrials. Marathon Oil (NYSE:MRO) increased its quarterly dividend and executed an impressive share buyback that blew by the target it originally announced.”

7. SentinelOne, Inc. (NYSE:S)

Share Price as of July 21, 2022: $26.5

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 38

SentinelOne, Inc. (NYSE:S) is a cybersecurity services provider that has clients all over the world. The company provides services such as cloud workload protection, artificial intelligence powered threat detection, and unification of endpoint protection, detection, and response solutions. The company is headquartered in Mountain View, California, United States.

Despite worries of a bear market hurting high growth technology companies, SentinelOne, Inc. posted a strong fiscal first quarter that saw the company grow its revenues by 109%. Equally impressive, and more important was the company’s annual recurring revenue (ARR) which grew by 110%, indicating that it has strong customer trust. For the same time period, its customers grew 55% to 7,450 bolstered in part by a 110% growth in high value customers with contracts larger than $100,000.

BTIG was impressed by the company’s fiscal Q1 and kept an Overweight rating on the shares, despite reducing its share price target to $37 from $48 as part of a wider software downgrade. Insider Monkey scanned 912 hedge fund portfolios in Q1 2022 to find out that 38 had invested in the company.

Dan Loeb’s Third Point is SentinelOne, Inc.’s largest investor through owning 26 million shares worth $1 billion.

Mentioning SentinelOne, Inc. in its first quarter of 2022 investor letter, ClearBridge Investments shared that:

“We added six new positions in the fourth quarter. We see next-generation cybersecurity provider SentinelOne, although early in its growth lifecycle, as capable of taking share from legacy players in the antivirus and broader cybersecurity industry.”

6. Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX)

Share Price as of July 21, 2022: $28.9

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 68

Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX) is a mineral mining company based in Phoenix, Arizona, United States. The firm extracts metals such as copper, gold, and silver, and it also focuses its efforts on fuels such as oil and gas. It operates more than 100 wells located all over the globe.

Freeport-McMoRan Inc.’s biggest weakness and its biggest strength is copper. Thought by many as the building block of the modern economy, copper is used across a variety of industries such as wiring, rocket engines, and electric vehicles. Therefore, as copper prices fall, Freeport-McMoRan Inc. looks worrisome, but as they rise the company’s prospects appear bright. Freeport-McMoRan Inc. also pays a quarterly dividend of 7 cents per share, for a reasonable dividend yield of 1.02%.

Freeport-McMoRan Inc.’s biggest strength is China’s massive growth in renewable energy, with the country having installed more than 10,000 wind turbines last year. This translates into more orders for the company, and investment banks such as Goldman Sachs and Citi project bullish copper prices for the long term. 68 of the 912 hedge funds part of Insider Monkey’s first quarter of 2022 survey had bought Freeport-McMoRan Inc.’s shares.

Out of these, Ken Fisher’s Fisher Asset Management is the company’s largest investor as it owns 50 million shares that are worth $2.5 billion.

Freeport-McMoRan Inc. made an appearance in Carillon Tower Advisers‘s Q1 2022 investor letter. Here is what the fund said:

“Supply chains eased for some goods, but remained challenged for many commodities including energy, agriculture, and fertilizer due to war and general scarcity, and also in many consumer products as semiconductors remained in short supply. Copper and gold producer Freeport- McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) rose as copper prices remained strong due to supply shortages and growing use in renewable energy systems and electric vehicles.”

Canadian Natural Resources Limited, Wells Fargo & Company, and Corning Incorporated are met by Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX in our list of some of the best stocks under $50.

5. Suncor Energy Inc. (NYSE:SU)

Share Price as of July 21, 2022: $31.37

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 41

Suncor Energy Inc. (NYSE:SU) is a Canadian oil company headquartered in Calgary. The firm engages in the exploration, acquisition, and selling of crude oil, petroleum products, diesel, and diesel dilutant. It also has wind power generation facilities. Additionally, it also markets natural gas and other power products.

Suncor Energy Inc., like other Canadian energy companies, is expected to pay out at least 50% of its cash flows back to investors in the form of dividends and share repurchase programs next year. Another benefit for the company is that its oil fields have long life and set to benefit it for years to come. Additionally, the company has the initiatives in place to both retire its debt and return cash to investors as noted earlier. As a cool cherry on top, Suncor Energy Inc. has some of the highest dividend yields out there, with a quarterly per share dividend of 37 cents resulting in a 4.62% dividend yield.

Credit Suisse kept a CAD$63 price target for the company in July 2022, citing optimism for its recent deal with an activist investor as it outlined that the affair can improve the oil company’s safety record. Insider Monkey took a look at 912 hedge fund portfolios for this year’s first quarter and found out that 41 had bought Suncor Energy Inc.’s shares.

Suncor Energy Inc.’s largest investor is Peter Rathjens, Bruce Clarke, and John Campbell’s Arrowstreet Capital which owns 16.8 million shares that are worth $548 million.

ClearBridge Investments mentioned Suncor Energy Inc. in its Q1 2022 investor letter to outline that:

“Also within the structural bucket, we added to our commodity exposure with the purchase of Suncor Energy (NYSE:SU). Suncor, a past holding, is a Canadian integrated oil company where we capitalized on attractive valuation due to a COVID-19-induced slowdown. We expect recovery in oil demand and strong pricing will result in faster than expected free cash flow growth and financial deleveraging.

The structural bucket has the shortest investment horizon across the spectrum of growth companies we target in the Strategy. We closely monitor the macro impacts and turnaround progress of these companies and will be disciplined sellers when the thesis for a holding plays out.”

4. Bank of America Corporation (NYSE:BAC)

Share Price as of July 21, 2022: $33.51

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 99

Bank of America Corporation (NYSE:BAC) is one of the oldest American banks that was founded in 1784 and is headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina. It has a diverse set of customers that include individual customers, companies, government bodies, institutional investors, and others.

In the wake of rising interest rates, Bank of America Corporation raised its dividend by 1 cent in July 2022, bringing it to 22 cents and payable to shareholders of record as of September 2.

Bank of America Corporation’s strength is visible by the fact that despite its share price falling close to 27% this year, it still has a price to earnings ratio of 10 and a dividend yield of 2.7%. 99 of the 912 hedge funds surveyed by Insider Monkey for their Q1 2022 portfolio had bought the company’s shares.

Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway is Bank of America Corporation’s largest investor. It has a $41 billion stake that comes through one billion shares.

In its first quarter of 2022 investor letter, Aristotle Capital Management mentioned Bank of America Corporation and stated:

“We first invested in Bank of America during the second quarter of 2013. During our near decade as investors, Bank of America closed the chapter on the legacy issues from acquired Countrywide, including mortgage write-downs and substantial legal charges. In addition, it successfully turned the Merrill Lynch franchise into one of the leading U.S. brokerage and advisory firms. Thanks to what we consider to be a strong management team led by CEO Brian Moynihan, the bank went through years of simplification, improved its cost structure and efficiency ratio, and reduced risk. While we believe Bank of America remains a much-improved market leader, we decided to exit our position and use the proceeds to invest in Brookfield Asset Management.”

3. Corning Incorporated (NYSE:GLW)

Share Price as of July 21, 2022: $34.63

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 43

Corning Incorporated is a lesser known company that plays a crucial role in the technology industry. The firm is responsible for manufacturing and selling optical and display technologies that are used in crucial applications such as semiconductor manufacturing and in a host of devices such as smartphones and notebooks.

Corning Incorporated’s strongest suit is the fact that it is one of the world’s premium manufacturers of optical fiber cables. These cables will be utilized massively in the rollout of fifth generation (5G) infrastructure, and the optical segment grew its revenues by 28% annually in its latest earnings report. Additionally, a subsidiary of the company caters to the chip industry, and it saw its sales grow by 38.5%.

Insider Monkey’s 912 hedge fund survey for this year’s March quarter saw 43 as having bought the company’s shares.

Corning Incorporated’s largest investor is Jim Simons’s Renaissance Technologies. It owns 2.4 million shares that are worth $90 million.

2. Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC)

Share Price as of July 21, 2022: $43.34

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 93

Wells Fargo & Company is a financial services company that was formed in 1852 and is headquartered in San Francisco, California, United States. It offers a host of services such as investment, mortgage finance, commercial finance, and other banking services.

Basic, yet crucial financial metrics, such as return on tangible share holder equity (ROTCE) and net interest income (NII) paint a bright picture for Wells Fargo & Company’s future. The company is expected to have an ROTCE of 10% and grow it to 15% over the next couple of years and its NII is slated to grow by an equally impressive 20%.

Like other banks, Wells Fargo & Company’s fee income dropped in its latest quarter, which made Barclays reduce its share price target to $58 from $64 in July 2022, along with maintaining an Overweight rating. By the end of Q1 2022, 93 of the 912 hedge funds in Insider Monkey’s database had invested in the bank. Wells Fargo & Company also pays out a 25 cent quarterly dividend per share for a 2.29% dividend yield.

Patrick Degorce’s Theleme Partners is Wells Fargo & Company’s largest investor. It holds an $884 million stake that comes through 18 million shares.

Wells Fargo & Company made an appearance in Davis Funds’s Q4 2021 investor letter, with the fund stating that:

“The absolute level of revenues and profits generated by such companies is in fact so large that most of the major financial holdings in the portfolio produce enough annual operating income individually that a number of them could, in theory, purchase several entire businesses among hundreds of choices within the S&P 1500 Index, using just a year’s cash earnings without dipping into capital. This is theoretical, as financial companies would not be in the business of buying healthcare or technology companies, for example, but we point out these facts to illustrate the sheer scale of the economics produced by single financial companies in a given year, which is often a multiple of the cash earnings yielded by companies in a host of other industries.

Given this cash-generation power, we are naturally drawn to what we believe are strong and profitable financial institutions when the price is right. Presently, we believe the valuations of our financial holdings are not only reasonable, but extremely compelling, and our portfolio composition reflects this view. Representative financial holdings in the Fund includes Wells Fargo.”

1. Canadian Natural Resources Limited (NYSE:CNQ)

Share Price as of July 21, 2022: $47.55

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 32

Canadian Natural Resources Limited is, as its name suggests, a Canadian company that engages in the exploration and development of crude oil, natural gas, and natural gas liquids. It has millions of barrels of proven oil reserves and is headquartered in Calgary.

Canadian Natural Resources Limited has one of the strongest dividend yields out there at 4.6%, and to further improve this, the dividend is growing at a compounded annual growth rate of 22%. Furthermore, the company has pledged to pay 50% of its cash flows to investors through share repurchases as long as its debt levels stay below $1.5 billion. Canadian Natural Resources Limited also pays out a quarterly dividend of 58 cents per share, for an impressive dividend yield of 4.41%.

Canadian Natural Resources Limited is also a rare company that saw a stock rating upgrade in July 2022, when BofA upgraded its rating to Buy and kept a $100 share price target. The only thing that kept the bank from increasing its share price is its gloomy outlook for crude oil prices. 32 of the 912 hedge funds researched by Insider Monkey in Q1 2022 had bought the energy company’s shares.

Canadian Natural Resources Limited’s largest investor is Donald Yacktman’s Yacktman Asset Management which owns 16.9 million shares that are worth $1 billion.